Every Christmas card which depicts Mary and Joseph traveling, has donkey....I just know it should be spoken of in the narration of the birth of Jesus....but no, it is not..
It may be that the donkey was the typical mode of transportation or a typical animal that people owned...after all Joseph was a carpenter and he would need a donkey to carry his tools or the item he had built or what ever. Anyway, the donkey shows up in every picture with the new couple...whether they had one or not....
On the comical side, the illusive donkey reminds me of the mule that gets its picture taken with Don knots and Tim Conway in the Apple Dumpling movies...
But, back to the real story....
An assumption...of course there is this because of that....taking something for granted...a guess....a theory, untested......
I make assumptions everyday, without checking on the source or without checking with other people....I just assume that they are thinking the way I am...or doing the same as I am....after all isn't that the way you say or do it??? NOT....a great way to have bad communication ....
Life experiences, personalities, temperaments, age all added into the pot of decisions, time, circumstances, change the way we look at, or things...not assumptions...
In America, many assume that because they are Americans that we are Christians. Or because our family has Christian members, we are all Christians.....NOT.....that is a poor assumption....only those who have acknowledged their need for a Saviour, repented, believed in the one true Saviour, have the privilege of being a Christian...that is real, not an illusion...
It has been said that God has no grandchildren, just children...in other words, just because our parents are Christians, we should be Christians also....NOT...everyone has the choice of belief or not....
John 3:16
New King James Version (NKJV)
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
.NIV commentary..... those who love the coming of the light, who look on and trust the “upraised,” crucified Son, who believe in Jesus and “live by the truth” (3:21), these people not only enjoy eternal life (3:16, 18) but they come to the light and yearn for its truth. John does not have in mind here people in the world who already have the goodness of God at work in their hearts and whom the light reveals. John is describing what happens when those in the world make a choice to believe; they are transformed into children of God (1:12; 11:52; 1 John 3:10), experiencing the power of the Spirit (3:5–6) and living the truth (3:21). Such people live righteously because God is at work in them (3:21b), not because they have a native desire to be godly.
Actually, in the recorded word of Christ's life, a donkey really doesn't come into the real picture until near the end of Christ's life...the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.....and this was a particular donkey, a colt, never ridden....for the special purpose of carrying a king into the town.....and this is no assumption, it actually happened....
Thank YOU that we can't assume that we Christians. We have to make that choice...each for own self....it is not illusive, but real.....
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